Eli Linton is the RTC correspondent for the Summit League.

Predicted Order of Finish:

1. Oakland                          22-9        (16-2)
2. Oral Roberts                  21-10     (15-3)
3. South Dakota St.            18-11     (11-7)
4. IUPUI                               17-14     (9-9)
5. North Dakota St.           14-14     (8-10)
6. Southern Utah                13-16     (8-10)
7. Western Illinois             13-16     (6-12)
8. IPFW                               11-18     (4-14)
9. UMKC                             9-20        (4-14)
10. Centenary                      6-23        (2-16)

All-Conference Team:

• Johnathan Jones (G), Sr, Oakland
• Garret Callahan (G), Sr, South Dakota St.
• Dominique Morrison (F), Soph, Oral Roberts
• Jon Avery (F), Sr, IUPUI
• Keith Benson (C), Jr, Oakland

6th Man. Hunter McClintock (G), Fr,  Oral Roberts

Impact Newcomer.  Larry Wright (G), Jr, Oakland.   The junior transfer from St. John’s University, should have an immediate impact on the Summit League. Two years ago he led the Red Storm in three-point field goal percentage, and he should be the perfect replacement for Erik Kangas, The Oakland great who set the all-time single season mark last year with 145 threes. Wright’s long-range shooting could be the key to Oakland’s success.

What You Need to Know. The Summit League is like the little engine that could. Every year, it produces a scrappy team that creates some hype in the NCAA Tournament. Last year Ben Woodside and his rag-tag boys from North Dakota State challenged the defending national champs (Kansas), and just came up short 84-74. This year’s Summit League has the potential to produce a similar Cinderella story, with teams like Oakland and Oral Roberts reloading with some really talented players. Watch out for Oral Roberts and their newcomer Damen Bell-Holter (Mr. Alaska 2007, top 50 center prospect on Scout.com) who has the potential to dominate the lesser big men in the conference. Defense is the key to winning the Summit League. Last years champ NDSU held their opponents to 69.1 points per game, and Oral Roberts, in their three straight championships from 2006-08, held their opponents to 62.0, 64.9, and 68.1 points per game.

Early Games

• 12:15 PM: #14 Stephen F. Austin vs. #3 Syracuse
• 12:25 PM: #9 Tennessee vs. #8 Oklahoma State
• 12:30 PM: #11 Utah State vs. #6 Marquette
• 12:30 PM: #14 North Dakota State vs. #3 Kansas

Afternoon Games

• 2:45 PM: #11 Temple vs. #6 Arizona State
• 2:55 PM: #16 East Tennessee State vs. #1 Pittsburgh
• 3:00 PM: #14 Cornell vs. #3 Missouri
• 3:00 PM: #11 Dayton vs. #6 West Virginia

Evening Games

• 7:10 PM: #16 Morehead State vs. #1 Louisville
• 7:10 PM: #12 Arizona vs. #5 Utah
• 7:20 PM: #10 USC vs. #7 Boston College
• 7:25 PM: #13 Portland State vs. #4 Xavier

Late Night Games

• 9:40 PM: #9 Siena vs. #8 Ohio State
• 9:40 PM: #13 Cleveland State vs. #4 Wake Forest
• 9:50 PM: #15 Robert Morris vs. #2 Michigan State
• 9:55 PM: #12 Wisconsin vs. #5 Florida State

Quite frankly, today’s slate looks a lot more interesting than what was on yesterday. There are 3 games in each of the 4 groups that seem like they will be entertaining except for the afternoon set where only the 6/11 match-ups really catch my eyes. Feel free to leave your thoughts or questions on any of these games or the ones from yesterday in the comment section. I’ll be back around noon to cover the day’s action.

12:15 PM: Ok. We’re about to get underway. I was a little delayed by the fact that the bus to RTC East decided to pick up 3 people in wheelchairs, which slowed down my trip significantly (had to get them in/out during 6 stops). Is anybody rooting for Stephen F. Austin just because they can’t stand Eric Devendorf?

12:20 PM: “The best look the Lumberjacks have had so far”? That was only their 2nd possession of the game. The crows is awful in Miami. I know its early, but there is nobody there. I have to say the NCAA did a pretty poor job with their pod placement. I’ll have to double check, but Miami is probably the worst pod location in terms of distance from the participating schools (and the fact that they don’t care about sports in Miami).

12:30 PM: Rough start for Stephen F. Austin in Miami. Already down 10-2. Hopefully they can keep it close although this was probably the game that was the most likely to be a blowout in this group.

12:35 PM: Did anybody pick upsets in this group of games? I have North Dakota State and Utah State.

12:40 PM: Good game in Dayton (Ok State 14, Tennessee 13 with 12:20 left in the first half). In Boise, Lazar Hayward is up 7-5 on Utah State.

12:45 PM: North Dakota State is keeping it close with defending national champion Kansas (19-17 with 12 minutes left in the first half). I’m hoping for a big game from Ben Woodside. What do you guys think ND State has to do to win today?

12:55 PM: You guys might want to check out an excellent preview of today’s games in the East Region that Dave Zeitlin and Steve Moore put together. I think that 3 out of the 4 games could be good.

1:00 PM: Cole Aldrich might be the key to this game. The Bison don’t have anybody who can match-up with him. Kansas has opened up a 7-point lead with 4:41 left in the first half.

1:15 PM: Kansas closes with a 16-7 run to take a 9-point lead going into half. Marquette goes into halftime with a 26-18 lead.

1:30 PM: Sorry for the lack of updates, but Syracuse is doubling up Stephen F. Austin with 15 minutes left and that’s not really worth discussing. I’ll have more when the other games come out of halftime.

1:40 PM: Out of curiosity, how bad would the economy have to be for CBS to try to pull something like ESPN (it was them , right?) did a few years ago when they had the announcers back in the US calling an international event?

1:43 PM: The Cowboys are holding onto a 3-point lead with 15:52 to go despite having 8 turnovers. This looks like it could be a good one.

1:45 PM: Speaking of good games. . .Does anybody have any thoughts about the finish of the VCU-UCLA game yesterday? I thought that Darren Collison did a great job on Eric Maynor on the last possession, but VCU had some issues with floor spacing when the guy who set the screen got a little too close to midcourt (Maynor may have even stepped on the line).

1:50 PM: Kansas-ND State is a 3-point game with 15 minutes left. It looks like we are going to get our 3 good games that I promised earlier in the day.

1:55 PM: I see we have a few Syracuse/Devendorf fans here. Seriously though, if he played for Duke don’t you think he would need a security detail at games?

2:00 PM: Kansas might start getting tight here. It’s a 3-point game with 10:20 left.  Right now we have 3 games with a combined margin of 6 points midway through the 2nd half. This should be a phenomenal 30 minutes.

2:10 PM: Aldrich goes to the line and sinks a pair. ND State is in trouble now. It’s a 10-point game with 5:47 left. They need to start making a run now.

2:25 PM: It looks like ND State is going down (trailing by 9 with 1:15 left). Tennessee-OK State are tied at 72 with 1:54 left and Marquette trails Utah State by 1 with 3 minutes left.

2:27 PM: Dumb foul by ND State. Fouling Sherron Collins who is having a big day today. Frantic action in Dayton. Tied with a minute to go.

2:28 PM: Tyler Smith responds to Byron Eaton‘s jumper with an “and 1″. He’s going to the line (9/9 FT) with 24 seconds left with the game tied. Utah State is up by 1 with 1:47 left, but Jared Quayle (18 points) just fouled out.

2:30 PM: WOW. Huge play by Eaton. Driving lay-up and 1. Going to the line with 6.7 seconds left with a chance to give the Cowboys a 2-point lead.

2:32 PM: Jerel McNeal gives Marquette a 3-point lead. Tai Wesley just fouled out with 34.1 seconds left. It looks like the Aggies might be done here. Apparently Wesley knows what a rectangle is (“the geography of the lane”). Eaton sinks the FT. 2 point lead with 7.2 seconds. Tyler Smith comes up short on a 3 and the Vols are going back to Knoxville. Utah State cuts it to 2 with 23 seconds left on a banked 3. Crazy stuff.

2:38 PM: 26-year old Gary Wilkinson comes up short. 1-point margin. Great game. Two phenomenal finishes. Best stretch so far. I almost got dizzy with CBS cutting between so many games.

2:42 PM: Agree with Jersey. Awful defense by the Vols. Also did Smith even look at anybody else on that play. On the replay it looked like he had somebody open on the nearside of the court behind the 3-point line.

3:20 PM: Relatively slow start to all the games so far. I haven’t seen anything that interesting, which is why I haven’t posted much. Arizona State is leading Temple by 9 with 37.8 seconds left. Pittsburgh is only up by 2 midway through the first half.

3:40 PM: Agree with the CBS guys. That was a ridiculous call on DeJuan Blair. He could have landed on his back like that kid did in the NIT.

3:45 PM: e could have something developing here. All 3 of the favorites (Pittsburgh, Missouri, and West Virginia) are struggling right now. I expect the favorites to win at least 2 of these games, but there might be an upset (our first legit one of the tournament?) Interesting foul by Sam Young there playing the bounce.

3:48 PM: If you’re wondering why the posts have been sporadic it has been because I just put up an interview I did with Bill Laimbeer where he took some shots at Digger Phelps among many other things.

3:55 PM: Pitt is only up by 3 going (the last shot was a fraction of a second late). They’re going to need to step it up or their late season failures might start creeping into their heads pretty soon.

4:05 PM: Temple is hanging in there against the Sun Devils. It’s just a 6 -point game with 9:42 left and Dionte Christmas going to the FT line.

4:15 PM: Just a heads up for our fans, rtmsf will be on ESPN 1040 in Tampa at 5:20 PM ET. You can listen to him by following this link.

4:20 PM: Pitt and ETSU are tied at 26 with 19:30 left in the game. Young hits a pair of FTs to put the Panthers up by 2. Young and Blair need to take over and give the Panthers a double-digit cushion or this could get very interesting. . .

4:30 PM: Huge block by Greg Hamlin on Levance Fields. Pitt is in trouble right now as is another team from the Big East, West Virginia, that is down by 6 to Dayton. Only the Missouri lead looks safe right now.

4:35 PM: Jersey, thanks for the update. I was about to check out that game on MMOD because CBS isn’t switching from this Pitt choke. They’re just getting outworked.

4:50 PM: Jamie Dixon is going to have to ride Blair because he’s the only one playing well for thr Panthers today. Keep an eye on that WVU-Dayton game. The Mountaineers are down by 4 with 7:49 left.

5:00 PM: Down to a 2-point game with 4:14 left. ETSU ball, but an ugly possession leads to a turnover. An easy lob to Blair (must have had a 6 inch and 70 pound advantage) leads to an “and 1″ with the FT coming when we come to back from the break.

5:10 PM: Asthon Gibbs got away with one there. Is there anybody who doesn’t have Pitt at least into the Final 4? It’s a 5-point game with 90 seconds left.

5:17 PM: Pitt hangs on to win by 10, but West Virginia is about to go down. Dayton is up by 7 with 34 seconds left.

5:30 PM: Just listened to rtmsf get on ESPN 1040 in Tampa. Some good stuff. We’ll be back around 7 for the games tonight. And yes we’ll actually be here (I’ll be here so I’m sure of it. If anything changes, I’ll leave a note.)

7:10 PM: And we’re back (and here to stay tonight) with the Louisville-Morehead State game (until they switch us over to the Arizona-Utah game). One interesting fact from the intro. This is the first time Louisville has been a #1 seed since 1983 or when I was 1 month old.

7:22 PM: Correction–I’ll be watching the USC-BC game. I should have figured since I live less than 10 miles from Chestnut Hill.

7:25 PM: I’m going with USC in this one. I think they’re on a hot streak right now and BC can’t guard DeMar Derozan or Taj Gibson.

7:30 PM: Arizona already has a big lead (16-6) just 8 minutes into the game. What does it say about Utah’s seeding that the last team in the tournament and the most controversial team was widely predicted to beat them (a #5 seed)?

7:32 PM: “Young fella! Don’t hurt ‘em!” – Gus Johnson’s call on Derozan’s throwdown. I think he could be playing his way into a top 10 spot.

7:35 PM: Interesting USC fact: They have only had all of their starting lineup for 5 games this year. That might explain their poor play this year. Any thoughts from people who have seen the Trojans play a lot htis year.

7:40 PM: I noticed this earlier, but didn’t mention it. Taco Bell Arena? Really? I guess I can’t make that much fun of it because at least they won’t be using bailout money to have their name on a stadium.

7:45 PM: It’s been an ugly day for the Big East so far. Syracuse won by 15 over Stephen F. Austin in a game that I didn’t see after they got a 20-4 lead so I’m assuming they just cruised after that. WVU lost to Dayton. Pitt almost became the first #1 seed ever to lose its first round game and Louisville is threatening to do the same (down by 2 with 6:18 left in the first half).

8:00 PM: It looks like we might have 4 good games tonight, but Louisville-Morehead State will be the story of the night if this keeps up.

8:15 PM: Quick check of halftime scores: Louisville up by 2, Arizona up by 5, BC up by 4, and Xavier up by 7. Not a bad set of games. Terrence Williams needs to step it up. 1 FG in the first half isn’t going to cut it for the best player on a potential national champion.

8:20 PM: Out of curiosity, is anybody reading this right now? There haven’t been many comments today and it’s a Friday night. If nobody is reading this, I’ll probably finish up with this set of games and call it a night.

8:30 PM: Sloppy play by Morehead State (running the endline on the inbounds) early in the 2nd half. Hopefully they don’t fall apart adn can keep this one close.

8:35 PM: It looks like BC-USC will be our go-to game tonight. Louisville is up by a baker’s dozen while Arizona has a 9-point lead.

8:45 PM: What was that? Daniel Hackett must have thought Derozan (who can get up) was LeBron James jumping on a trampoline to catch that alley-oop.

8:50 PM: USC has started to pull away in this game. They’re up by 8 with 9:50 left, but Rakim Sanders responds with a 3 to cut it to 5. It seems like BC doesn’t have the athelticism to keep USC. This almost seems like a Big 10 vs. SEC match-up in football.

9:00 PM: Two good games here: Arizona-Utah and USC-BC. I’ll be doing the big screen vs. MMOD from here on out.

9:05 PM: Something to watch for. Taj Gibson is 10 FTs away from pulling a Christian Laettner, but he has 4 fouls. USC looks like they are in control here. Wow. I just saw the wideshot of the Metrodome. The lower level is about 80% full. The upper level. . .not so much. I would be surprised if there were more than 100 people up there.

9:12 PM: Scott, you’re right. It looked like a promising set of games at halftime, but the teams that won certainly dominated the 2nd half. I’m sort of sad to see BC go. They were the first school to give me media credential and it’s kind of cool to see someone you have met and (sort of) know on TV.

9:20 PM: Just a heads up for you guys. I’ll be slowing down the frequency of my posts for the final set of games tonight. I’ll probably post about every half hour unless something big happens or we have a tight game down the stretch in which case I will go back to normal BGtD format. I have to say that I’m surprised by the lack of shocking upsets so far. I can’t say I have been stunned by anything yet. Dayton knocking off West Virginia was surprising, but not something that will be remembered outside of Ohio or West Virginia by the time April rolls around. Any thoughts about the potential Michigan State-USC match-up?

10:00 PM: Yikes. Awful start by Wake Forest. They already down 14-4 to Cleveland State just 5 minutes into the game. Nothing else that notable thus far in the late night games.

10:05 PM: Jersey, was that Smith or Raferty? I assumed it was the latter but I was trying to follow multiple games at once. If it was Smith, that is definitley a Gilbert Arenas move. Unfortunately, like Agent Zero we won’t be seeing Tyler in the 2nd round.

10:25 PM: Ok. It loosk like we have 2 interesting games right now: Cleveland State beating down Wake Forest and Robert Morris hanging tough against Michigan State. I know that rtmsf called the Cleveland State upset on ESPN Radio at 5:20 PM, but I don’t know many people who had Michigan State going down to Robert Morris. Or is this another tease like then Pitt and Louisville games?

10:30 PM: Jersey, if Jeff Teague and Al-Farouq Aminu are told they are certain lottery picks I don’t see why they wouldn’t go. I mean I can certainly see areas they can improve on, but it’s hard to pass up that kind of money particularly with this economy and the relatively weak draft. I’m also not sure what effect any new collective bargaining agreement might have. Depending on the year, it might make sense for them to leave early to save a year or two and get out of their rookie contracts before a more owner-friendly CBA goes into place. As for James Johnson, I think that outside of a Final 4 run I can’t see him getting into the lottery so I would stay in school if I were him.

10:40 PM: Just a notice for everyone, we’ll be doing a BGtD tomorrow, but that will start at 3:20 for the 2nd set of games. We have a correspondent in Philly who will be doing a live blog from the UCLA-Villanova game. We’ll be doing our regular BGtD after that, but we figure it would just be canibalizng each other’s posts to do them at the same time so check there first (it will be at the top of the page and then we’ll go to BGtD afterwards.

11:20 PM: It looks like we will have 3 interesting games as the Spartans blew open their game against Robert Morris soon after I wondered whether or not they would go down. Wake Forest is still struggling against Cleveland State and right now they are down 9 with 11:22 to go. The other two games are essentially tied. Did anybody have Wake going far in their bracket?

11:40 PM: Wake is barely hanging on. They’re down by 14 with 6:15 left. This would be the first major upset of the tournament. We’ll be doing regular BGtD the rest of the way.

11:41 PM: That’s why Aminu will go pro. There are only a handful of guys in the NBA that size who could do that. Wow. The lead is down to 12 with 5:03 left.

11:43 PM: Meanwhile in Columbus Dayton, Ohio State is up by 4 with 1:18 left. It’s ridiculous that Ohio State will have such a big homecourt advantage against a #1 if they win this game.

11:45 PM: Wake is down by 15 with 3:54 left. Unless Cleveland State chokes this one is over, I would expect a full scale meltdown on the Wake boards pretty soon. I’m predicting 12:10 PM (ugh, these games take so long to finish).

11:47 PM: Great finish in Dayton. Kenny Hasbrouck of Siena with 2 FTs down by 1. He misses the first and . . .sink the 2nd. Tie game with 8 seconds left. Ohio State ball.

11:49 PM: Evan Turner misses a driving lay-up and a follow 3 is wide left and we’re going to OT! The first of the tournament, right?

11:51 PM: And the Wake game is officially over. The announcers are already talking about Skip Prosser. Not a good sign. 18-point lead with 2:35 left.

11:53 PM: Switching over to the FSU game, which is in Boise for some reason (couldn’t they have put them in Miami), where they lead Wisconsin by 1 with 1:29 left. Toney Douglas has 21 of the Seminoles’ 50 points.

11:55 PM: ONIONS!!! Huge shot by Jason Bohannon nails a deep 3 just before the shot clock expired to put the Badgers up by 2. Awful possession by Wisconsin, which became wonderful with that shot.

11:58 PM: Nice play by Douglas who drew the foul on Trevon Hughes by driving to the basket. He sinks both. Wisconsin should get what is essentially the last shot of the game.

Midnight: Wow. The much-maligned B.J. Mullens may have saved the Buckeyes season with a flip to Turner when the ball would have went to Siena. Turner is at the line with a chance to give the Buckeyes a 3-point lead.

12:05 PM: Turner held up his end, but Ronald Moore responded with a 3 with 2.5 seconds left to force a 2nd OT. I’m not sure if I can handle another 6 OTs.

12:25 PM: Nice wins by Wisconsin and Siena to finish off round 2. We’ll be back with more tomorrow today.

vs. Kansas (#3)
Mar. 20 @ 12:30pm

Vegas Line: NDSU +10

General Profile

Location: Fargo, North Dakota
Conference: Summit League — Tournament Champion
Coach: Saul Phillips, hired 2007. Record at NDSU = 42-19
08-09 Record: 26-6 (16-2)
Last 12 Games: 11-1, won 7.
Best Win: vs Oakland 66-64 on 3/10/09 for the Summit tournament title after the teams had split the season’s two earlier matchups.
Worst Loss: Southern Utah, 69-74, on 2/14/09, though the most heartbreaking was the 4-point loss at USC on 12/20.
Off. Efficiency Rating: 103.0 (139th)
Def. Efficiency Rating: 107.7 (285th)

Nuts n Bolts

Star Player(s): Ben Woodside (5’11″ senior guard), 22.8 ppg/6.3 apg and shoots 84.2% from the FT line and 42.7% from three.
Unsung Hero: Brett Winkelman (6’6″ senior forward), 18.7 ppg/7.4 rpg and shoots over 50% from the field and over 80% from the FT line. Probably not as much “unsung” as he is simply playing behind Woodside.
Potential NBA Draft Pick: None.
Key Injuries: No significant injuries.
Depth: 31.0% mins (170th nationally)
Achilles Heel: Defense. NDSU lets opponents shoot 45.1% (254th) and 35.7% (251st) from the field and from three, respectively.
Will Make a Deep Run if…: …Woodside can still hit shots even with the tougher defenses he’s going to face, AND he and Winkelman get some help from 1-2 other fellows who might find themselves benefitting from the attention Woodside draws.
Will Make an Early Exit if…: …they don’t shoot well. This is where they live. This team shoots 49% and 41.2% from the field and from three respectively. That’s 3rd and 5th in the NATION, for those categories. If they don’t shoot well, it’s over.

NCAA History

Last Year Invited: None — this is their first eligible season.
Streak: 1
Best NCAA Finish: n/a
Historical Performance vs. Seed (1985-present): n/a

Other

Six Degrees to Detroit: None
Distance to First Round Site: 235 miles
School’s Claim to Fame: Alf Clausen, composer for The Simpsons, is an alum.
School Wishes It Could Forget: That it wasted Woodside’s 60-point explosion against Stephen F. Austin in December; Woodside was the story, but NDSU lost that game 112-113 in three overtimes.
Prediction: Do you want to see this team coming in the first round? Everyone’s going to be rooting for them. Woodside’s got a shooting eye that can turn out your lights and there’s probably not a lot of game film about. Still, probably a one-and-done debut. It’ll be fun to watch, though.

Major RTC stories: Ben Woodside Knows Free Throws, and 12 Down, 53 To Go

Preview written by: John Stevens, Rush The Court.

Favorite
Louisville, #1 Overall Seed, 28-5 (16-2), Big East Regular Season and Conference Champions

Should They Falter
Wake Forest, #4 Seed, 24-6 (11-5). Even more than Michigan State in the Regional Final, Wake could present the biggest match-up problem for Louisville.

Grossly Overseeded
Utah, #5 Seed, 24-9 (12-4). Utah tied for the Mountain West regular season title and tournament (carried by great computer numbers), but how can anyone say this team should have a higher seed than UCLA, Clemson, or West Virginia?

Grossly Underseeded
None. With the exception of Utah, the committee did an excellent job seeding this region.

Sweet Sixteen Sleeper (#12 seed or lower)
#12 seed Arizona. The last team in the field lucked out with an over-seeded Utah team then could throw their match-up zone at a Wake team that hasn’t handled a zone defense all season.

Final Four Sleeper (#4 seed or lower)
#6 seed West Virginia. If Alex Ruoff has a tremendous tournament and Devin Ebanks continues to progress into stardom, they have the personnel. A freshman PG worries me though.

Carmelo Anthony Award
Sherron Collins, 18.3 PPG, 5.0 APG, 38% 3PT- As Sherron Collins goes, the Kansas Jayhawks go. He has the chance to take this young team under his wings and lead them to another Final Four.

Stephen Curry Award
Ben Woodside, 22.8 PPG, 6.3 APG, 43% FG- Many college hoops diehards know Woodside and his scoring prowess already. Most casual fans will be introduced to him for the first time and his Cinderella Bison.

Home Cooking
Louisville, 1, 152 miles to Dayton. Ohio State, 71 miles to Dayton.

Can’t Miss First Round Game
#7 Boston College vs. #10 USC, Friday. A very evenly matched game between two teams with studs like Tyrese Rice, Rakim Sanders, DeMar DeRozan, and Taj Gibson. Can the Trojans keep it going?

Don’t Miss This One Either
#3 Kansas vs. #14 North Dakota State, Friday. An inexperienced and slumping Kansas team battling a fifth-year senior laden Bison squad. Could we have an upset brewing in Minneapolis? Don’t miss this one.

Lock of the Year
West Virginia will make the Elite 8. They’ll take down Dayton, North Dakota State and Michigan State en route to a rematch with Louisville.

Juiciest Potential Match-up (Purists)
#6 West Virginia vs. #2 Michigan State, Regional Semifinal. Two of the best rebounding and fundamentally sound teams in the nation could do battle for a spot in the Regional Final.

Juiciest Potential Match-up (Media)
#1 Louisville vs. #4 Wake Forest. The amount of talent on the floor in this game (Samardo Samuels, Earl Clark, Terrence Williams, Jeff Teague, James Johnson, and Al-Farouq Aminu) will have NBA scouts drooling.

We Got Screwed
Kansas, #3 Seed, 25-7 (14-2). Besides the fact that Kansas deserved a #2 seed over Oklahoma, they have to face the most dangerous #14 seed in the tournament (North Dakota St.) and the most dangerous #6 seed in the second round (West Virginia). I would feel a lot better about Kansas matching up with the other #6 seeds.

Strongest Pod
#2 Michigan State, #7 Boston College, #10 USC, #15 Robert Morris. BC-USC could be a fun 7-10 game while Robert Morris is no slouch for the Spartans.

Upset Special
#14 North Dakota State will beat #3 Kansas in the first round.

Region MVP
Terrence Williams, Louisville.

So-Called Experts
The general consensus seems to be Louisville and I tend to agree. Sorry for going chalk, folks, but they’re easily the best team in this region.

Vegas Odds to Win Region

]]> http://rushthecourt.net/2009/03/15/qnd-midwest-region-analysis/feed/ 1 http://rushthecourt.net/2009/03/11/atb-12-down-53-to-go/ http://rushthecourt.net/2009/03/11/atb-12-down-53-to-go/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:20:40 +0000 rtmsf http://rushthecourt.net/?p=6427

A couple of newsworthy notes before we get started with tonight’s Dance Card.

• First, John Calipari must be bottling angelfairydust down there in Memphis, as John Wall, the nation’s #1 ranked recruit, now lists Coach Cal’s Tigers as his likeliest destination for the 2009-10 season.  This news comes on the heels of DeMarcus Cousins’ verbal commitment to Memphis within the last week.
• From 850 the Buzz, apparently the usage of the word “unanimous” is a little ambiguous at the ACC offices in Greensboro these days, depending on who the player is they’re trying to promote (FSU’s Toney Douglas vs. UNC’s Tyler Hansbrough).

Now… on to the three dance tickets punched tonight.

# 10 – North Dakota St. (26-6, 16-2).  NDSU is going to get a lot of national attention in the next week by virtue of the fact that this was their first eligible year in D1, and several players including star guard Ben Woodside redshirted their freshmen seasons to have the shot at the NCAAs they’re enjoying tonight, but remember that our very own John Stevens was all over this story before anybody – way back in mid-December when Woodside ripped the nets apart for 60 big ones.  Tonight it looked as if their long-sought-after dream was dead, as the Summit League regular season champs found themselves down ten points with nine minutes remaining in the title game.  Slow and steady, the Bison worked itself back into the game, and after Oakland’s Keith Benson tied the game with a dunk with 0:12 remaining, the ball was put into Woodside’s hands and the rest is history, 66-64.

Projected Seed: #13

Something to Remember:  NDSU has the fifth most efficient offense in the country, and it’s predicated on great shooting and ballhandling.  The Bison are #5 in three-point shooting at 41% and they are #11 in fewest turnovers per game.  Whichever #4 or #5 seed gets this team had best bring their defense.

#11 – Cleveland St. (25-10, 12-6).  Bubble teams all over America were cursing Gary Waters’ Cleveland St. Vikings tonight, as their Horizon League automatic bid earned over at-large lock Butler took one of the 34 available spots away from some hopeful team.  Was it Creighton?  Florida?  St. Mary’s?  We’ll never know for sure, but CSU held Butler stars Matt Howard and Gordon Hayward to a combined 21/12, and in so doing was able to make just enough plays on the defensive end down the stretch to get the upset win over Butler, 57-54 in their house.  RTC Live had the liveblog coverage here, but if you were lucky enough to see the television coverage, you saw a team in Cleveland St. that wanted this game just a smidge more than their HL counterparts.  The Vikings’ NCAA bid is their first since 1986.

Projected Seed: #14

STR: Cleveland St. played Kansas St. and West Virginia tough in losses earlier this year, and of course they beat Syracuse on the ridiculous 75-footer, so this is a team that won’t be intimidated as an underdog in the first round of the NCAAs.

#12 – Western Kentucky (24-8, 15-3).  WKU started this Sun Belt title game on an 11-0 run, but South Alabama wasn’t going to just give the Hilltoppers the game so easily, as the Jags fought back to tie and even briefly take the lead in this one for a period in the mid-second half.  But WKU, led by AJ Slaughter’s 18 pts and Stephffon Pettigrew’s 15/7, was not going to be denied, and Ken McDonald should be commended for the excellent job he’s done with a team that lost its star backcourt of Courtney Lee and Tyrone Brazelton (not to mention head coach Darrin Horn).  Western Kentucky earned its 21st trip to the NCAA Tournament and its second in a row tonight.

Projected Seed: #11

STR: This is an unpredictable team.  Although they finished the season winning eleven of their last twelve games, earlier in the season the Toppers lost by 28 to Murray St., 32 to Evansville and 28 to Mississippi St.  They also defeated Louisville by 12.  This is probably why WKU ranks #265 in Pomeroy’s consistency statistic.

——————————————————–

QnD Conf Tourney Updates.

Big East.  Did you hear that the sixteen-team Big East Tourney started today?  Georgetown and Cincinnati must not have gotten that memo, because neither team showed up for its own funeral, losing first-round games to the dregs – St. John’s and Depaul, respectively.  Yes, Depaul, the same team that was 0-18 in the regular season.  At least Seton Hall managed to beat S. Florida and Notre Dame kept its disappointing season alive for another day.

Big Sky. In the semis, #2 seed Portland St. advanced, but #6 Montana St. knocked out #1 Weber St with the upset, including one of the greatest open-court facial dunks of the year (if anyone can get a link up, let us know…).

MAC. The MAC first round was today, and there were no major upsets.  CMU, Kent, Ohio and Akron all advanced.

MEAC. The MEAC also began today, and the two higher seeds Hampton and FAMU advanced.

WAC. Another opening round, where Fresno St. “upset” the higher seeded Hawaii.

For Tomorrow’s Viewing Pleasure. We’re starting to get serious now.  The Big Sky and NEC hold its title games Wednesday, and the A10, Big 12, Big West, CUSA, Mountain West, Pac-10 and SWAC get it started.  We’re rapidly approaching bracket nirvana.

Tourney Preview (Sioux Falls Arena)

Saturday Games:

(1) North Dakota St. vs. (8) Centenary

Centenary was outrebounded in their last meeting with NDSU by 22. Although Redus had a strong game, Adams and Stallings combined for just 16 points. Expect the same defensive play from the bigger, better guards of NDSU.

(2) Oral Roberts vs. (7) South Dakota St.

Home state advantage could make this a much tighter game than it is on paper. Jackrabbit forwards Anthony Cardova and Kai Williams, the only players taller than 6’5 to see regular minutes, must come up with huge games on the glass. If Ford and Lewis are not accounted for, it’s over.

Sunday Games:

(3) Oakland vs. (6) IPFW

The bend and break zone defense Oakland is known for would not be a wise strategy to implement against IPFW. On offense, Oakland needs to feed Will Hudson and Keith Benson early and often. IPFW might be able to out finesse you, but don’t let them get off easy on defense. Defense will win this game. Profound analysis, I know.

(4) IUPUI vs. (5) Southern Utah

Pick your poison with the Jags, 5 guys score at least 9 ppg. IUPUI handled the Thunderbirds in both games and Robert Glenn could not be bothered. Gary Patterson is as due for a big game as Jimmy Fallon is due for a new blindfold.

Looking ahead

• If Southern Utah advances it will make for an intriguing matchup with NDSU on Monday. The Thunderbirds beat NDSU on the road just a few weeks with a furious 2nd half rally. IUPUI would be no walk in the park either.
• Oakland and Oral Roberts are destined to meet in round 2. They split during the season even though Jarvis struggled and Jones flourished. Expect a good ol fashion barnburner. X-factor- Andre Hardy.
• Don’t miss the final Tuesday night at 7pm on ESPN2. The top 3 teams are so evenly matched there’s really no way to say any one of them is more capable than the other of puncturing Goliath in the jugular come round 1 of Christmas, March 19th.

Wrap Up

Awards came out on Thursday.  Ben Woodside was pegged Player of the Year and rightly so, he’s arguably the most irreplaceable player out there. Not often you can find a scoring point guard who distributes the ball as well as Woodside.

The top 3 clubs swept up the six First Team slots (never understood why 6 instead of 5). Both Oral Roberts selections were stretches, 2nd teamers Keith Benson and Robert Glenn deserve those spots. Keith Benson led the league in blocks and was 3rd in rebounds. Robert Glenn scored 14 ppg in just 25 minutes/gm. The strength of Oral Roberts is their defense and patience on offense. That patience comes and it goes, I mean, Jarvis ended the season shooting 39% from the floor and was out assisted on the season by Marcus Lewis, the power forward. And wouldn’t you know it I’m having trouble coming up with something negative to say about Marcus Lewis, so I’m going to quit while I’m ahead.  Lewis on, Jarvis off.  39%, what a shame.

The second team features that dude with two last names from Southern Utah and South Dakota junior guard Garrett Callahan, a 43.4% 3pt shooter and maybe the most underrated player in the league. David Dubois of ninth place Western Illinois rounded out the 2nd team, at least taking away something positive from an otherwise brutal season.

Centenary Love

Centenary players Nick Stallings and Chase Adams made the Honorable Mention, Gary Redus made the All-Newcomer Team, and Chase Adams stole the Defensive Player of the Year from Keith Benson. A whole lot of smooching on a team that barely squeaked into the tourney, that’s for sure.

Minor Beef

IUPUI freshman Alex Young (11 ppg) was left off the All-Newcomer Team in favor of two Oral Roberts players who did not even crack double figures in scoring. I’ll let the Kevin Ford pick slide since he averaged over 7 rebounds per game. As for Dominique Morrison, I just don’t see the justification.

NDSU 22-6 (15-2)

Everybody’s favorite to be the league rep in the Big Dance.  Now the only question is what seed they will be pegged. Many bracketologists (I use that term oh so liberally) have the Bison as a 14th seed, some a 15th, no one else to my knowledge has them as anything different. With such a dynamite record, is a 13th seed really that much to ask?  Back on the 21st the Bison tangoed with the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers in a scintillating BracketBuster match up for the ages. Check that, the only BracketBuster game anybody gave a flying squirrel about was Butler versus Davidson, and that game stunk. Do these one bid league teams really need to play an out of conference game during, uh, the conference season? I don’t think so. Plus, some of the BracketBuster match ups were a total waste of time, definitely not all created with equality in mind.  But back to the task on hand, NDSU senior guard Mike Nelson tied a season high with 22 points. Senior point guard Ben Woodside was two rebounds short of a triple-double. NDSU concludes the regular season at 2nd place Oral Roberts on Feb.28th .

Update- NDSU clinched at least a share of the regular season title with a road victory over Centenary on Thursday (Feb. 26). Woodside and Winkleman combined for 66 points.

Oral Roberts 16-13 (14-3)

Same old story in Tulsa, and for what it’s worth, I’m not hating (been getting some hellish hate mail from Oral fans lately, probably Jarvis’ relatives) on them at all, the story is in fact a pretty spectacular one. ORU sits right behind NDSU in the standings and not many (me included) believed they would be there right now considering their 3-11 start to the season. Since then it’s been smooth sailing. Front court bruisers Kevin Ford and Marcus Lewis have often canceled out the prevalent mindlessness of Jarvis’ shot chucking (think Allen Iverson) habit. It must be said however, when Jarvis is pragmatic on offense and is making wise decisions, ORU is mighty dangerous. But that might depend on what your definition of “dangerous” is.

Oakland 19-11 (12-5)

The Grizzlies have been on a tear ever since they returned home from the Dakota trip, where, if you hadn’t heard (that damn biased media kept us from the truth long enough yet again), they were forced to kill their own food and sleep in tents. Give credit where credit is due, this divergent mesh of players are a resilient bunch, I hear Dakota winters get a little chilly. In Oakland’s Feb. 21st victory over IUPUI freshman Blake Cushingberry, all 6.3 ppg of him, scored a career high 24 points on 8-11 shooting. And it’s also poignant to point out that the ever bubbly Keith Benson surpassed Rawle Marshall for Oakland’s all-time leader in blocks (101) against IPFW on Feb.14th. Took “the best mid-major conference player you’ve never heard of” all of 56 games to do it. 250 here Keith comes ( I’m not a math major, this could be out of reach).

Southern Utah 10-18 (8-9)

Slayed the Bison (in North Dakota) way back on the 14th of February in what is now commonly referred to as the game Southern Utah got their mojo back (citation unlikely). All I know is the junior guard with two last names is a pretty consistent guy to have on your squad but still among the gazillions of athletes that will go pro in something other than sports.

Update – Davis Baker had a rough go of it Thursday in a 16 point loss at Oakland (5-15 FG’s). The jinx was not intentional. The loss dropped the Lumberjacks into a tie with IUPUI for 4th place.

IUPUI 15-13 (8-9)

6’7 Junior Robert Glenn is having a darn good first year in Indianapolis—averaging 14ppg and 1.8blk in just 25min/gm.

IPFW 12-16 (7-10)

Won four out of the last six. Dangerous team from downtown.  Weak inside.

SDSU 12-18 (7-10)

In midst of a three game skid in which one of the opponents was 7-18 Cal Poly. Yeah BracketBusters!

Western Illinois and Centenary

Western Illinois has a one game lead on Centenary for the right to get trounced by NDSU on March 7th.

UMKC

3-14 in league play. Next season they return everybody but leading scorer senior Dane Brumagin.

Checks and Balances

My regular season predictions I made back on Oct. 23rd don’t look too cute. I had UMKC winning 14 total games, Centenary winning eight league games, and Southern Utah winning just three league games. Ouch. However the first three slots I did predict correctly, though, much to my chagrin.

North Dakota State Bison 19-5 (13-1)
11 games and counting since this squad last lost a game (Jan. 2 @ Oakland). Three out of their last four wins have been by at least 20. In a 38-point murder of UMKC on Thursday, 11 different players scored for NDSU and their 4th leading scorer Michael Tviedt was not one of them.

Ben Woodside (left), Senior, 5’11″: Leads the conference is scoring, 2nd in assists, and totally needs to acquire a license for his guns. Balances the duties of point guard and go-to scorer perfectly.

Brett Winkleman (middle), Senior, 6’6″: 3rd in the conference in scoring, tied for 3rd in rebounding, and his last name is Winkleman.

Mike Nelson (right), Senior, 6’4″: NDSU’s 3rd leading scorer, 3rd in minutes/game, and 1st in headshot creepiness.

Woodside, Winkleman, & Nelson

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles 12-13 (10-3)
Extended their 33-game conference home winning streak by squeaking past Western Illinois on Thursday, an important win considering the two game slide they were on coming into the game. Home date February 24th vs. NDSU.

Robert Jarvis (left) Senior, 5’11: 5th in the conference in scoring, probably has bigger guns than Woodside, and shoots a lackluster 38.5% from the field. Guy thinks his fecal matter and jump shot don’t smell.

Marcus Lewis (right), Senior, 6’8″: Oral’s 2nd leading scorer, team leader in FG% by a mile, and is tied for the team lead in assists (averages more feeds than Jarvis).

Jarvis & Lewis

Oakland Grizzlies 15-11 (8-5)
Two straight victories after two straight losses have the Grizz still in the hunt for the #2 seed. Celebs were in full force when Centenary traveled to Rochester for a date on the 7th. Didn’t actually see Joe Cribbs Car Wash mastermind Jerry with my own two eyes (almost sold out), but he was there.

Erik Kangas (left), Senior, 6’3″: The best shooter in the nation (inside joke, actually, wait a second) is 3rd in the country in total threes made, 2nd in the conference in scoring, and 2nd on the team in minutes/game (36.3).

Jonathon Jones (middle), Junior, 5’11″: J.J. currently has the most total assists in the nation, leads the team in minutes/game (38), and is only shooting 39.5% from the field (it’s unhealthy to be too much of a homer, got to keep it real).

Keith Benson (right), Redshirt Sophomore, 6’11″: Had to throw the big guy in here because he’s blocking over 2 shots/game (best in the conference.), 2nd on the team in scoring with 13.7, and the only guy I know who can effectively smile while swatting a shot, “running” back on defense, and getting cussed at by Coach Kampe. I’m telling you, the Only Guy.

Kangas, Jones, & Benson

The Others…

• Southern Utah had a golden opportunity to draw within one game of Oakland for 3rd place with a win @ SDSU on Thursday, but couldn’t get it done.
• After a 5-4 beginning in conference play, Centenary has lost four straight games by double figures.
• IUPUI is quietly lurking at 7-7 thanks to a 5-1 record since Jan. 24th.
• I think it’s safe to assume 2-10 UMKC won’t qualify for the Summit league tourney at this rate.

NDSU 15-5 (9-1)

The Bison are pouring it on now.  5th year seniors Brett Winkleman and Ben Woodside combined for 59 points in a 10 point overtime victory at SDSU on Jan. 23rd. Interesting to note the Bison only managed 8 assists the entire 45 minutes. On Thursday night (Jan. 29) NDSU used a 13-0 run inside of the 6 minute mark of the 2nd half to drown the Grizzlies. Ben Woodside notched his 3rd double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 dimes.  This win puts NDSU up 3 games on Oakland and a half a game ahead of Oral Roberts. The NDSU “team of destiny” murmurs are now circulating the Summit League landscape (gut source).

Oral Roberts 10-11 (8-1)

The last 2 Golden Eagle opponents have scored 54 and 51 respectively. Holding both opponents under 37% shooting will drastically help out the cause most nights. Oral Roberts is playing so well right now that Robert Jarvis (17ppg) has not needed to be a prime time offensive force (just 23 total points in the last 2 games). Senior forward Marcus Lewis scored 26 on 11-13 from the field in a victory over Southern Utah on Jan. 24th, all but ending the silly talk of Oral Roberts being too reliant on Jarvis shooting 20 + times a game. Really.

BIG GAME- Oral Roberts @ Centenary(5-4) Jan. 31st

Oakland 13-10 (6-4)

Before the Thursday night’s showdown with NDSU, Oakland was seemingly firing on all cylinders. Brimming with confidence after destroying 2 straight opponents by an average of 29 points, surely helped by Erik Kangas’s 2nd Summit league player of the week award in as many weeks, OU looked prime to shock NDSU on the road. But while sophomore Will Hudson and redshirt sophomore Keith Benson held their own inside, Oakland’s lack of depth proved detrimental (Jones-40 min, Kangas-39min). Kangas shooting 5-16 didn’t help matters either.

Tough loss, but believe me, many OU fans still believe they can make it to the promised land this season.

Centenary 7-14 (5-4)

Winners of 4 in a row, the Gentleman are playing almost as good as anyone right now. Their guard duo of Chase Adams and Nick Stallings are proving to be too much for the bottom feeders of the conference to handle as evidence by the 43 points combined they put up against Southern Utah on Jan. 22th and the 35 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds they put up against UMKC 2 days later.  Since unheralded freshman Maxx Nakwaasah was placed into the starting lineup 3 games ago, he has not disappointed, scoring in double figures each game (8-11 from deep), keeping the notion alive that if you have a weird name you’re likely to get mentioned by me on the internet trying to be witty.

In case you skip around when reading my Summit league wraps,

BIG GAME- Oral Roberts @ Centenary (5-4) Jan. 31st.

The REST

Four teams follow the pack at 4-6. I could discuss which team is most capable of pulling off a stunning upset, but that would be like gobs and gobs of pre-game Super Bowl coverage. Pointless. Overkill. Cards are winning by 4. You saw it here first.

Wait…

There is some unsettling news out of UMKC (2-8) you should be aware of. Sophomore guard and UMKC’s second leading scorer Reggie Hamilton announced earlier in the week that he quit the team. This piece of goodness puts to rest the need to ever mention UMKC on here again. And yes, actually there was a need to keep mentioning UMKC– see, Kangaroo fan Greg kept sending me disparaging emails threatening to kidnap and drag me out to a game at UMKC otherwise.   I must change my email.

North Dakota St. 12-5 (7-1)

The Bison have not lost since falling to Oakland at the beginning of the month. Senior guard Ben Woodside is averaging 26ppg and 5 assists in the last 3 games. Even though senior guard Mike Nelson’s shooting %’s are down from previous year’s, he’s still the team’s 3rd leading scorer at almost 12/gm.  This team may run away with the regular season crown.

Oral Roberts 8-11 (6-1)

Oral just lolls teams to sleep with good team defense and a deep but largely unspectacular scoring attack (5 players averaging at least 8ppg). A 5 game winning streak in which only one of their opponents scored more than 60 has allowed them to keep on the heels of NDSU. Something this team lacks is consistent outside shooting. No regular rotation player is shooting better than 33% from downtown.

Oakland 11-9 (4-3)

The Grizzlies picked up a much needed win against IPFW on Saturday evening (Jan.17th), thus ending their 2 game skid. Both teams shot 58% from the field and over 50% from downtown. Oakland’s senior Erik Kangas drained 8 threes en route to a career high 39 points. Back on January the 8th Oakland traveled to Centenary for the Gentleman’s home opener in front of 775 people. Despite the daunting atmosphere only hundreds of fans can produce, Centenary crushed Oakland by 20.  A usually calm Oakland basketball forum poster had this to say about the performance, “This loss should be unbearably excruciating for Kampe and the players. They got BENT OVER AND SODOMIZED by a weaker, inferior team. To be fair, you have to give credit to Centenary, because they were the ones who threw up the shots that went in the basket, but our guys have to be absolutely humiliated after a performance like this. Kampe, too. Stop all the chatter about how much progress OU is making as a program if you’re going to lose by 20 to Centenary College.”

Southern Utah 6-12 (4-3)

Big overtime win against SDSU on Saturday. Junior guard Davis Baker continues to play great basketball, possibly the most underrated player in the conference. Southern Utah is 4-1 in league play when Baker scores 20+.

Western Illinois 6-12 ( 3-4)

The Leathernecks have been the Sarah Palin of the conference so far. And no, I’m not saying any of the Western Illinois players are good looking or anything. To be fair, Saturday’s home loss versus Oral Roberts was played without the services of leading scorer David Dubois. I expect Western Illinois to continue to stagger back into oblivion as well.

Centenary 5-14 (3-4)

Winners of 3 out of the last 4 league games, the Gentlemen are certainly doing their best to make my early prediction of 8 league wins for Centenary a reality.  5’10 Chase Adams and 6’1 Nick Stallings are proving to be an explosive pair. Cententary’s last 2 wins have been by a total of 4 points (both road games). Fluke or a sign of a team coming together?

South Dakota State 8-12 (3-5)

Losers of 2 in a row, the Jackrabbits are teetering on the edge of falling out of contention for a top 4 seed in the league tourney. This team is not short on talent, but something is holding this team back. Kai Williams’ drop in productivity could be the reason. Kai is averaging 4.1 ppg less and 1 rebound/gm less than last year.

IUPUI 9-9 (2-5)

The current 4 game conference slide is the longest for IUPUI since the 1999-00 season. Ron Hunter, head coach of IUPUI, certainly has his priorities in order though. His contribution to Samaritan’s Feet (donate new shoes or $ here) has been nothing short of heroic.

IPFW 7-11 (2-5)

The Mastadons can put up some nice numbers from time to time, but they often just don’t play enough defense to consistently compete. Junior guard Nick Daniels is currently shooting 50% from downtown (31-62).

UMKC 6-14 (2-5)

This team is failing to do the little things that make all the difference.

1. Western Illinois  (3-0,  6-8)
2. North Dakota State  (3-1,  8-5)
3. Oakland  (3-1,  10-7)
4. IUPUI  (2-1,  9-5)
5. Oral Roberts  (2-1,  4-11)
6. Southern Utah  (2-2, 4-11)
7. IPFW  (1-3,  6-9)
8. South Dakota State  (1-3, 6-10)
9. UMKC  (1-3, 5-12)
10. Centenary  (0-3, 2-13)

Highlights

SDSU - 2 days before Christmas the Jackrabbits beat Iowa State on the road by 7. While the Cyclones are anything but a powerhouse team, props to SDSU for getting this win and holding Iowa State’s second leading scorer to 5 points on 2-12 shooting.

IPFW - The Mastodons finally broke through for a W in league play with a 100-66 smackdown of South Dakota State (Jan.2). Former Kansas St. forward Deilvez Yearby scored 19, grabbed 9 boards and swatted 5 shots. Former Oakland forward David Carson scored 24.

UMKC  senior guard Dane Brumagin - he was named the conference player of the week for Dec.23- Dec.29 after averaging 30 points and 6 rebounds in 2 games.

IUPUI - Beat Southern Utah by 5 without getting a single field goal from star senior guard Gary Patterson (Jan 2). IUPUI got 21 points from their only 2 bench players to see action in the game, Robert Glenn (13) and John Ashworth (8). Back on December 20th IUPUI beat Seton Hall with a Leroy Nobles layup as time expired.

Western Illinois – This team is just as likely to be the last undefeated Summit league team left as Eric Gordon is to be the future of the NBA.  Senior guard David Dubois doesn’t shoot the 3 ball real well, won’t wow you with his athleticism, gets in foul trouble too much, and probably dances like Elaine, but still manages to cram more than 17 ppg down team’s throat. 

Lowlights

Centenary - Losers of 7 in a row, it’s not looking good for the Gentlemen, or for my prediction of Centenary winning 8 games in the league.

UMKC - After drawing their conference record to 1-1 with a 8 point win against IPFW early on in December, the Kangaroos have lost their last two league contests by a combined 6 points. In both of the losses UMKC has been down by double digits at the half.

Oakland senior guard Derick Nelson - Head coach Greg Kampe finally announced (Dec.30) Nelson would be redshirted (medical). Nelson tried to come back from a serious foot injury he suffered in practice the day before the season opener but just couldn’t do it.

Southern Utah got out of the gate quickly with 2 straight W’s but has since dropped 2 in a row. I said it wouldn’t last long.  

NDSU @ Oakland (Jan.2)

I was fortunate enough to be in attendance as unarguably the two best teams in the league squared off. Neither team had more than an 8 point lead at any one time. I don’t think either coach sat down the entire game and I know neither was delighted with the officiating. NDSU guard Ben Woodside (23.5ppg) was held scoreless in the first half as was Oakland’s center Keith Benson (12.5ppg). Both stepped up their games in the second half but Keith Benson really woke up, scoring 17 (7-7 fts, 5-9 fg). The unequivocal iron man of the game was sickly 6’6 senior Brett Winkleman who only ate a piece of toast before the game because he was ill all day with a stomach virus. Brett not only played 32 minutes, but scored 33 points (6 treys) and had 3 steals. It was not enough. 

Oakland’s Erik Kangas, bothered by a calf injury virtually throughout the whole game, drained a 3 pointer falling away with a little over 7 seconds left to give OU the lead by 1. It was his first 3 pointer of the game and it sent the O’Rena into a frenzy of sorts, yet seconds later Ben Woodside zigzagged his way down the court and got all the way to the hoop to attempt a wild (it was made wild by the stout defense supplied by Kangas, the only OU player who seemed to know the game wasn’t over yet) layup that just bounced off the back rim. If the game had been in NDSU’s place a foul would have been likely called in my opinion, as Kangas challenged him and probably got a little body, but Woodside was going at a hundred miles an hour ( just a tad out of control I’ll say).  The refs got off the court in a hurry.

These teams meet again on the 29th of January in North Dakota.

I bet NDSU gets the call at the end.  Or else head coach Saul Phillips will be right behind them like a hungry lion.

So here are a few of the statistical items that we find interesting as we approach conference season – perhaps you will also.  (all stats furnished by basketballstate.com)

• These guys had better avoid foul trouble. UAB’s Robert Vaden, Texas’ AJ Abrams and Virginia Tech’s AD Vassallo each average over 36 minutes per game for their teams.
• Get these men the ball! Among players scoring 15+ ppg, St. Joseph’s Ahmad Nivins (74.2%), Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson (71.5%), Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin (67.9%) and Michigan St.’s Raymar Morgan (65.3%) are burning up the nets.
• Double-Double Trouble. Of the 19 players averaging double-figure rebounds, all of them also average double-figure points.  But only two of them are 20/10 guys – Blake Griffin (23/14) and Notre Dame’s Luke Harongody (23/12).  Patrick Patterson is just a whisker shy of 20/10 (19.6/9.5).
• Betcha Didn’t Know That…
  • Stephen Curry leads the nation in scoring (30.0), but Tyler Hansbrough puts up the most points per 40 minutes (34.4)
  • North Dakota State’s Ben Woodside, he of the 60-pt explosion two weeks ago, is #2 in the nation in assists (7.6 per game).  Or that Davidson’s Mr. Curry is 12th nationally in dime-dropping.
  • Kentucky guard Jodie Meeks is averaging 24.2 ppg so far this season.  The last Wildcat to average that many points per game was Dan Issel in 1969-70 (33.9).
  • VMI’s brother tandem Travis and Chavis Holmes are 1-2 nationally in pilfering the ball (4.0 and 3.7 spg).
• Tempo Free Stats.
  
  • UNC is the most efficient offensive team in the nation (1.19 points per possession), but did you know that Purdue is the most efficient defensive team around (0.79 ppp)?
  • The tops of the ACC and Big East have extremely efficient teams on both ends of the court – UNC, Wake Forest, Duke, UConn, Pittsburgh and Georgetown all have large differentials (approaching or above 0.3 ppp) resulting in an extra point every three or four possessions down the court.
  • The slowest paced “good” team is Wisconsin, with 61.4 possessions per game.  UNC, unsurprisingly, is averaging 79.3 possessions per contest.
  • Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and West Virginia own the boards, each team getting at or nearly 60% of the available caroms.  It’s difficult to find a “good” team that can’t rebound the ball, but Creighton is the best candidate for this award, only getting its Blue Jay hands on 48.2% of rebounds.
  • Notre Dame only turns the ball over one of every eight possessions (13%), but Kentucky gives it away nearly a quarter of the time (24%) and has still managed to go 10-3 thus far.  Incidentally, the Irish also rarely foul opponents (#1 in the nation with only 11.8 per game).  Tennessee, with all of its reaching and grabbing pressure defense, garners 21.3 fouls per game.
  • Georgetown, Connecticut, Xavier and Oklahoma live at the foul line, each getting a quarter or more of its points from the charity stripe.  Illinois, on the other hand, only gets about 14% of its points from the line.
  • The best offensively efficient performance by one team in a legit game this season so far was UNC  vs. Notre Dame, where the Heels averaged an astonishing 1.53 ppp in that demolition.

Got any others?  Feel free to pass them along in the comments!

North Dakota St. (2-0) 5-3

The big story for the Bison so far is their 5’11 point guard Ben Woodside.

The performance of note (I’m sure you all have heard about it by now) came against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. North Dakota State lost by 1 in a triple OT, but Woodside scored the most points by a DI player since Arizona State’s Eddie House put up 61 in 2000. Having seen Woodside play live before, the outburst did not surprise me. If you haven’t been lucky enough to watch Woodside play before, think of him as a mix between a Chris Quinn streaky shooter type and as a sneaky drive to the basket and flip it up Tony Parker type player.

Ben is one of the few Summit League players that has a fighting chance at a NBA future.

Anyways, Ben scored 60 points, 30 of them were from the charity stripe. And even more impressive was the fact Woodside only made 2 three pointers.

I can’t let this other parcel of info go untold. NDSU senior center Lucas Moormann scored 10 in that Stephen F. Austin game. This is worth mentioning because Moormann only had scored a total of 10 points in NDSU’s 6 prior games. And by the look of Moormann’s career stats at NDSU, he’s gotten progressively worse year by year.

Thanks, Lucas, we’ll hear from you, uh, probably never again.

Southern Utah (2-0) 3-6

This transfer laden team has had quite an interesting start to the season. Their only 2 DI wins have come against Summit opponents. They have lost to Seattle Pacific (DII) by 10, but only lost to Florida by 14 and a decent Boise St. team by 3. I’m not sure how to guage this team. One thing I can say: losing to Southern Utah will probably go under the bad loss category.   However if they keep winning conference games, I’ll rethink that notion.  And I’ll start talking about how bad the Summit league is.  Stay tuned.

The others…

IUPUI nearly knocked off ranked Arizona State on the 14th. Even though the game was held in Arizona, it was hardly a raucous atmosphere for IUPUI to endure. Attendance was N/A, meaning, it barely broke the double digit mark. IUPUI freshman guard Alex Young scored 19. Keep an eye on this cat. He’s averaging 14.7 ppg and 4.2 boards. He’s just a baby. Former IUPUI stud George Hill averaged 10.7 ppg and 4.5 boards his freshmen campaign.   Head coach Ron Hunter is doing some nice recruiting over at IUPUI. Alex looks like another real good mid-major find.

Despite being 2-7, Oral Roberts has improved mightily over the past few weeks. They got a nice conference win over rival South Dakota State in an atmosphere akin to a Charlotte Bobcats – Golden State Warriors rivalry game.  Even better was the performance they had on ESPN2 against the UNC Tar Heels (Dec.13th). Losing by 16 to the best team bar none in the country is no easy feat. In fact, and this blew my mind, Oral Roberts outscored UNC by four in the 2nd half. I don’t care if the small religious school got overlooked by UNC or not, outscoring UNC in a half is fantastic.  Something not fantastic?  Robert Jarvis’ clown show of heaving 17 threes. We Summit League types know full well you want to stand out to the pro scouts, but dude, don’t be surprised if Poland decides to renege their interest in you. I watched most of that game and you JACKED up at least two thirds-ish of those threes. Put the team first, it’ll will be worth it in the long run.

Not sure when Oakland’s Derick Nelson will return, but as of late it hasn’t mattered much. The Grizzly offense has finally gelled to the point where Johnathon Jones isn’t forced to create a shot on his own with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock seemingly every other play (although it worked against Oregon). Erik Kangas is finally expanding his game a little by using his sneaky quickness to create shots for himself instead of always shooting threes (I’m not complaining), Keith Benson is, for the most part, acting like he gives a fudge out there on the court, and freshman Drew Maynard is starting to understand the finer points of moving your feet on defense and not falling for every pump fake. We’ll see where this team is really at after they play Michigan and Michigan State in the coming days.

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Ben Woodside.

Most likely you’ve never heard of this gentleman (or maybe even the Bison of North Dakota State University) unless you live in North Dakota or follow Summit Conference basketball. And I’ll be honest with you — until about an hour ago, neither had I. But when the overnight interns here at the RTC Eastern Seaboard Complex noticed and alerted me that on Friday night our boy dropped 60 points on Stephen F. Austin in a game in Drake University’s Hy-Vee Classic – yeah, that’s right, I went Hy-Vee on you! — well, I simply had to investigate this.

Taking Him to the Woodside

Sticking with honesty, I’ll tell you that I obviously didn’t see this game, and while I was getting down to the bottom of this, I was thinking of possible headlines for an article, like “Woodside Takes SFA Behind the Woodshed,” or “Lumberjacks Can’t Chop Down Woodside,” or something like that. But those prospects were ruined by the fact that SFA actually defeated Woodside’s NDSU team 112-111 in three overtimes. The game was tied 78-78 at the half, and in one of the more interesting-looking linescores you’ll see, NDSU scored 11 points in each of the three overtimes. SFA also scored 11 in the first two…but 12 in the 3^rd OT.

Whenever I hear that a player has put up a huge individual number like that, I always wonder who got embarrassed in their attempts to play defense on this guy. In this case, the answer is…half of the time, nobody. Literally. Woodside, a 5’11’’ 185-pound senior, took a page from the Tyler Hansbrough success manual and got half of his points by converting numerous opportunities at the free throw line, shooting an impressive 30 for 35. You’d also think that a 5’11’’ guy would need some serious 3’s to hang 60 big ones on somebody. Wrong again. Woodside was 14 for 32 from the field, only shooting 2 of 6 from three-point range, so he’s obviously got some creativity in his game. More evidence to this fact is that Woodside has evidently been a consistently prolific scorer for NDSU in all four of his on-court seasons there (he redshirted his first year), averaging 17.5 as a freshman, 16.4 as a sophomore, and 20.7 as a junior. Before this year began he had a streak of 85 consecutive starts, which certainly looks like it’s still intact. It’s also worth noting that he’s averaged over 5 assists each year, and tacked on 8 assists (and 8 rebounds, nearly a trip-dub) in the game earlier tonight against SFA, making him responsible for at least 76 of the Bison’s 111 points.

I’m sure he probably would have rather had the victory for his team, but any time a guy elevates his PPG from 20.7 to 26.2 in a near mid-season game, props are warranted. So kudos to you, Ben. We’ll be checking in on you periodically for the rest of the year.

]]> http://rushthecourt.net/2008/12/13/ben-woodside-knows-free-throws/feed/ 5 http://rushthecourt.net/2008/12/06/checking-in-on-the-summit-league-2/ http://rushthecourt.net/2008/12/06/checking-in-on-the-summit-league-2/#comments Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:06:49 +0000 rtmsf http://rushthecourt.net/?p=2879 Ryan Pravato of College Fast Break is the RTC correspondent for the Summit League.

Opening Thoughts

The Southern Utah Thunderbirds are in first place. Enjoy all of the perks that go with it, Thunderbird fans.  But remember, Duke football got out to a cute little start this season and that didn’t end so well, did it?

This unfamiliar madness all started on Tuesday (Dec. 2) as the Southern Utah Thunderbirds kicked off Summit League conference play at home with an upset of epic proportion over Oakland. Alright, relax self, so maybe Oakland isn’t the UNC of the Summit League, but the 82-66 victory was somewhat of a surprise considering the Thunderbirds came into the game on a 4 game losing streak and, frankly, Southern Utah head coach Roger Reid wasn’t exactly feeling ecstatic about the match up with Oakland prior to the game,

“The match up is not good, I could go down a list player for player and it’s not good. They have a lot better talent than we do. But talent alone doesn’t win games. I could be the guy who puts spin on it, and say we expect to win these games, but if you ask me, how do we match up against them, we don’t.”

That’s why they play the games, folks.

It’s not entirely fair to blame Oakland too much for the Southern Utah debacle. It was the Grizzlies 8th straight game away from home and all of them have been without last season’s leading scorer and rebounder Derick Nelson.

2-0?

Southern Utah’s domination of conference competition continued on Thursday night (Dec.4) as they beat up on the visiting IPFW Mastodons, 78-62. Southern Utah’s leading scorer Davis Baker had his fourth 20+ point effort of the season with 21 on 6-13 from the field and a Steve Nash-like 7-7 from the charity stripe. Forward Tyler Quinney came back down to earth after his 35 point explosion against Oakland, scoring a more reasonable 12.

The Tipsy Team has probably been the difference in both of these drubbings.  Yep.  Has. To. Be.

Other Dec. 4th conference games

Oakland @ UMKC

The gunslingers of UMKC launched 39 threes on Oakland, making 14 of them, but it didn’t really matter. Oakland took care of the ball (9 miscues) and collected 9 steals and 7 blocks. Oakland also got quite the performance of 6’11 sophomore Keith Benson as he scored a career high 21 and swatted 4 shots. Oakland freshman point guard Matt Samuels also scored a career high, pitching in with 10 points off the bench.

Oakland improves to 1-1 in conference play and 4-5 overall.

UMKC falls to 0-1 in conference play and 3-6 overall.

Oral Roberts @ North Dakota State

The conference favorites played a pretty tight game in the first half as Oral Roberts only led by a bucket at the half. But the NDSU Bison rallied back and scored 55 big ones, led by seniors Ben Woodside (24 pts) and Brett Winkleman (20 pts). Oddly enough, at least I think so anyway, only 5 players scored for NDSU and only a total of 3 shots were taken by NDSU players other than the 5 who scored. Got that?

I swear I’m not drinking* right now.

NDSU improves to 1-0 in conference play and 3-2 overall.

Oral Roberts falls to 0-1 in conference play and 1-5 overall (still seeking first DI win this season).

Centenary @ South Dakota State

The big news in this game was free throw shootin’. SDSU hit 30-39 while Centenary hit 11-20. SDSU sophomore forward Anthony Cardova recorded his 2nd double-double of the season with 15 and 10.

SDSU improves to 1-0 in conference play and 4-4 overall.

Centenary falls to 0-1 in conference and 2-7 overall.

WIU & IUPUI

Western Illinois and IUPUI will open their conference slates by battling it out on Dec. 6th.

IUPUI comes into the opener with a 4 game winning streak and a finally healthy Gary Patterson.

Western Illinois squeaked out a 2 point victory over Texas-Pan America just recently. Senior guard David Dubois is averaging a shade under 17 ppg.

* the NDSU Kool-Aid